


Sugar, Spice and everthing not nice

by shinso



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gen, Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-09
Updated: 2013-10-09
Packaged: 2017-12-28 22:50:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/997839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinso/pseuds/shinso
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pride wasn't always the best thing to have, yet it never hurt to have rivals.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sugar, Spice and everthing not nice

Despite being only five years old, there was something Eren was irrationally proud of — his Halloween costume, his pranks and the amount of candy he managed to get in just a few hours of a chilly October night. Nobody could beat him at that.

He had at least thought so, but this year there was a new child of his age in his street. They didn’t get along that well. From the beginning on, they had been hard rivals in anything two kids could compete at.

Trick-or-treating was no exception. Whoever lost, they had agreed, had to give the winner half of their sweets.

Eren hated going out with his sister, but his mum wouldn’t allow him to go out by himself, even if he knew that he should be old enough to do this by himself now. He’d just have to sneak away at some point and do his own thing. He wouldn’t go far away, just a little bit of his own business. He didn’t want to worry Mikasa too much, but he had to get a lot of candy.

So, after leaving house in his brand new skeleton costume, Eren walked up a few houses with Mikasa, getting his first bag filled up pretty quickly. He knew most people and they adored him, so it was easy business. Knowing that he was going to get at least twice of what the new kid would gave him an enormous surge of confidence.

He had Mikasa carry his full bag, already starting on his second one, when they ran into the other kid. He was standing proud, one full bag clutched to his chest. A teen around Mikasa’s age,yet a little shorter than her walked next to him. Their older siblings exchanged a few words, but Eren didn’t pay attention.  
He was glaring at the other kid, who had a smirk on his face. But Eren knew he wouldn’t be smirking at the end of night. Glancing up at his sister, the boy found right now was the best moment to walk around alone for a while. Unless that bastard Jean snitched on him, that was.

But he just had to tempt his luck. Not wasting another look at Jean, Eren took a few quiet steps back, before disappearing behind a pile of pumpkins. Thank god for weird, big Halloween decorations. Snickering to himself, he snuck around for a while, only taking a break when his next bag was almost full. Ah, he had to get a third bag as well, but how far out could he go? Mikasa was probably already worried, but…

Just a little further. He had to beat Jean so hard the he wouldn’t dare to mess with him on trick-and-treating again. Not that it wasn’t fun to be better at something than him, but he had to learn his place. So it didn’t matter, if he had to walk a bit further for a change. Even if it was cold and dark, he knew everyone in the neighbourhood so it shouldn’t be a problem. It wouldn’t take long.

A few houses later, the second bag was full and he had troubles holding both the third and the second in his arms, so he took a break, sitting down on one the low, flat fence in front of the house he’d just visited. Maybe he’d go back now — it was late and not a lot of people were around any more.

Thump.

Eren looked up, surprised when somebody sat down next to him.

"How much did you get so far?", Jean asked, still clutching a bag to his chest. Could have been his second, who knew? Eren didn’t care one bit.

"Almost three.", he also clutched his bags tightly, ‘hmpf’ing and tilting his head, so his nose was almost pointing towards the sky.  
"I have a proposal.", Jean hopped off the fence, turning around to face Eren as soon as he landed. "There’s a house I’m sure you’re too scared of! Old Kalat’s house. The hag—"

"I’m going.", Eren decided, not a single flicker of fright in his voice. He jumped off the fence as well, his eyes fixed on the shabby, old house in a garden full of random objects, the old woman had probably obtained at a flee market. "But if I get at least one candy, I automatically win."

"That’s fair.", Jean nodded, following a seemingly fearless Eren. Just to make sure he wasn’t bluffing, of course. He would just stand in the background and watch Eren run away, once the old hag appeared. Would be a great show.

It didn’t take them more than two minutes to reach the door, but Jean was sort of terrified, clinging to Eren’s costume’s sleeve. Something in the garden — there was something that’d moved. And it made noises. Strange noises. Jean didn’t like it, he just wanted to get out of here.

"Hey… Eren, hey. Let’s go away, I’ll let you win, but let’s get out of here.", he stuttered, scared eyes searching the dark surroundings. Where was it? Was it an animal? A bat? Something bigger? Something dangerous?

"What’s your problem, chickening out now?", Eren snorted, knocking two times on the old, withered door and waiting. He didn’t care about Jean being scared or how he clutched his sleeve tightly. No, he was gonna get through with this.

Which didn’t mean he would eat the candy he got even if he got one. Gross.

When nothing happened though, he tried to knock again. Before he could even lower his hand, the door opened awfully slow. The inside was dimly lit and a thin, old woman appeared. Her eyes were milk and her skin wrinkly. She titled her hand, making her white locks fall to the side.

And then she smiled. “You want sweets, yes? Come on inside.”

Jean shrieked quietly, while Eren took a step forward. Jean stumbled after him, too scared to go anywhere alone by now. Cobwebs decorated the foul-smelling hallway. The door fell shut behind them, as if moved by a ghost or something similar. Jean’s heart beat fast and his eyes were wide with uncontrollable fear. There was no-one… at the door… and no wind outside either, so how?

Jean shivered and squeezed his eyes shut. He hid behind Eren, who still stood as fearless as ever. The woman smiled even wider, eyeing the boys closer. Eren had to admit that she was a bit strange, but there was nothing else wrong with her whatsoever.

"So, would you rather have blood or bones?", the woman asked, giggling.

"Blood! I want blood!", Eren squealed, confident in ‘blood’ being a spooky name for some sort of red sweet. Jean kept quiet, ducking down behind his rival. Nothing had ever scared him as much as the situation they found themselves in.

"Mmm, I see, I see.", the woman took an empty jar from the small vanity behind her, looking at it from all angles, before lowering it a little. "This much?"

"Eh? Ah, sure! That’s enough.", Eren tilted his head curiously, definitely not prepared for what was about to come next. His bright turquoise eyes watched in horror as the old woman ripped out one of her fingers with a ‘plop’ and let blood drop into the jar.

"E-Eren… Eren, hey, let’s get out of here, seriously.", Jean yelped, pulling at Eren’s sleeve again. This time, Eren stumbled backwards, letting himself get pulled along and out of the house. The woman’s eerie laughter still rung in their ears as they sauntered through the garden and back down the street. They stopped once they were out of breath and had almost reached Eren’s house. Both panted, sinking to their knees and clinging to each other. Eren started sobbing, and Jean panicked when it turned louder and his costume got wet.

"Don’t cry.. hey, please—", Jean tried to soothe him, but Eren just kept clinging to him, and cried. Not knowing what to do made him want to cry himself, so Jean just hugged Eren tightly, trying to keep the tears at bay.

They were eventually found by their siblings, but refused to let go of each other. Both of them were scared the woman would find the other if they left them alone and so they spent their night together at the Kirschstein’s place.

Huddled together under one of those thick quilts they stared at each other. All lights were turned on as both of them were too scared to be in the dark, even if only for a single moment. It was a cold night, but being together made it somewhat bearable.

"Eren.", Jean whispered, grabbing the other’s hand and holding it tightly. He looked tired, but still extremely frightened by the evening’s events. "Why did nobody believe us?"

"I don’t know.", Eren breathed in return, curling up and helplessly catching Jean’s gaze. "But… but I know that this really happened."

"Uh-huh. Me too.", Jean shivered, thinking about the blood dripping from the old woman’s hand again. "I-I’m scared. Is she gonna come after us?"

"If she does, we’ll run.", Eren muttered, squeezing Jean’s hand comfortingly. "And scream. I’m sure we’re faster than her… she looked soooooo old!"

"Yeah… But that means, we can’t sleep. If we sleep, she might surprise us and… and.. eat us or something like that.", Jean watched as Eren squeezed his eyes shut and let out a whimper. "Don’t worry though. I don’t think I will fall asleep. So even if you do, I will wake you up if she comes here. Don’t worry, Eren."

"Jean…", Eren opened his eyes again, a few tears already forming in his eyes again. "I’m sorry. I’m sorry… I was mean to you, but…"

"Me too. I’m sorry too.", Jean let go of Eren’s hand and hugged him again instead. "We have to stick together now, though. So let’s forget about our fights, right?"

"R-right.."

And even though they found comfort in each other’s presence that night, they didn’t sleep at all.

Ever since that evening they were inseparable, always wanting to be with each other and keeping their alone time at a minimal amount.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This is the first time I've published something somewhere other than tumblr in a while... I hope you liked it!


End file.
